Someone explain this to me.

[elfs]

Why is it that I can accurately recall the names, storylines, and even the personal histories of hundreds of characters in my stories, even ones I haven't referenced in five years, but if I go to a party full of people I know I've known for a decade and some I have been introduced to only recently, including the gorgeous redhead in the revealing dress, I can't recall a single name?

It's Alzheimers, I'm tellin' ya.

Comments

[lionman.livejournal.com]

For me, it was sleep apnea. Seriously. It hosed my memory in weird ways.

[geak.livejournal.com]

I've always felt that the people who lived in my head were more real to me than the people I met in real life. I know that might sound sad but literature has always been more friend to me than anyone else.

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

With people, the name is not the person, it is merely a label for that person. You are having a problem matching the label to the person it belongs to. With the character, in a sense the label is all that they are. Does not surprise me either, as I have the same problem with matching labels with people.

[uppityfaggot.livejournal.com]

Time to defrag the hard drive?

[norincraft.livejournal.com]

I found that if I don't really expect to see someone again, I don't encoded the name. In fact, I often don't bother to notice the name in the first point so encoding isn't possible. Retrieval isn't usually a problem for me and given your example it doesn't sound like it is for you either.

So here is my guess: You have infrequent to semi-frequent contact with people who are interesting but that you don't expect to see again. The nature of the contact is informal and there are a lot of social ways of masking the issue.

How does that sound?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

The contact is informal and face-to-face conversations don't require I know a name to address someone. But I'd like to have handles to hang memories off of.

[norincraft.livejournal.com]

But you do. You have the episodic memory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episodic_memory) itself. All you need is practice with various mnemonic devices to effectively hack the brain.

However, it's perfectly normal for the abstract parts like the name to fall out of memory because they are the parts that typically are not reinforced. You might recall from time to time, all or parts of the encounter (which I am guessing was the one you wrote about on 24 June 06). In remembering, you recreate fairly close mental representations of appearance, conversation and feelings. But names are not only abstract and fairly arbitrary (I can imagine we all know people who have changed their name) but also infrequently mentioned unless you or others are either constantly calling someone by name or they refer to themselves in the third person.

[damiana-swan.livejournal.com]

*grins* It's not unlikely that you might see her at OLOTEAS.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Actually, that was where I previously encountered her. And you, dear, not only do I remember you but I seem to have no trouble conjuring up your real name as well.

[damiana-swan.livejournal.com]

*grins* Perhaps you just have a thing for curvy women with long dark hair?